The objective of this research program is to gain unerstanding of psychological aspects of the childbirth experience and their impact on the well-being of the child, the new parents, and the family unit. Childbirth is a special interaction of physiology and psychology which may have important consequences in infant development. The current goals of this research are to develop instruments which allow for objective, comprehensive measurement of childbirth events and to describe the varieties of normal childbearing. A method has been developed for recording the physical state of the woman in labor and medicaly and social interactions with her. A compartible measure of delivery room events is now being constructed. Prenatal and postpartum interviews with parents provide data on their expectations and recollections of the birth which can be compared with the researcher's observations. Parental views of the newborn are contrasted with the researcher's assessment of infant behaviors.